We are creatures both selfish and tender; we need each other to thrive. I don’t care for the cloying kind of love.

To stay together always, year after year, through every dawn and dusk, never apart — perhaps that was just the reckless whim of a young poet. Staying together forever takes a lifetime to compose into something truly magnificent. Yet in a few years, even the grandest vows may become relics of the past. I love what Zhuo Wenjun once wrote: “I wish to find a kindred heart, and never part till our hair turns white.” I admire her courage to love, her way of loving, and her resolve in the face of love’s end — “The waters of the Jin River flow on and on; with you I make a clean break.” So why should we lament endlessly when someone leaves? Healing may come quickly, yet that wound may leave us wary for a long time.

“If only life were as beautiful as first sight — why should the autumn wind trouble the painted fan?” Indeed, how wonderful it would be if life could remain as it was at first sight. The moment my heart stirred when I first saw you — if only it could stay frozen in that instant forever. “Hear me, O Heavens! I wish to be with you, my love, for as long as life endures. Only when mountains crumble and rivers run dry, when thunder roars in winter and snow falls in summer, when heaven and earth merge into one — only then would I dare part from you.” What bold, fervent, and utterly sincere devotion. And yet now I’ve come to feel that love need not mean “hand in hand till we grow old together.” Only this very moment, loved with all one’s heart, is truly worth remembering for a lifetime.